This document discusses the harms of adolescent alcohol use and the influence of parents. It notes that alcohol is the world's number one risk factor for poor health among those aged 25-59. Early and regular teen drinking is linked to increased risks of alcohol and drug problems, accidents, and mental health issues. While parents often underestimate their influence on teen drinking and view it as inevitable, parental drinking, provision of alcohol to children, and lack of rules/monitoring are associated with higher teen drinking risks. The document calls for addressing Ireland's culture of unhealthy drinking and empowering parents to reduce risks to adolescents.

1. Facing ‘The Fear’: Alcohol
and Mental Health in
Ireland
This conference is part-funded by
the National Office of Suicide
Prevention

2. Adolescent drinking in our
Intoxicated State
AAI Conference
Nov 2013
Dr Bobby Smyth

3. Overview
• Update on some harms
• Culture & Language
• Influence of adults

5. Correlation
= -0.96
P<0.001

6. Why worry?

8. “… in the population aged 25–59 years alcohol is the
world’s number one risk factor for impaired health
and premature death, and far more significant than
unsafe sex, tobacco use or diabetes.”

9. Teens, Alcohol and
Depression

10. Teens, Alcohol and Anxiety

11. The Adolescent brain – a work in progress
Giedd et al, 1999, Nature Neuroscience,
2, 861-863
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/press/prbrainmaturing.cfm

12. Zeigler DW et al (2004)
"Underage alcohol is associated with brain
damage and neurocognitive deficits, with
implication for learning and intellectual
development"
Casey & Jones (2010)
“Many studies have reported altered brain structure
and function in alcohol dependent or abusing
adolescents…… smaller frontal & hippocampal
volumes……suggesting that early adolescence
may be a period of heightened risk to alcohol’s
neurotoxic effects”

14. Learning which shoulder to cry on…..

15. Summarising harms
• Damage to brain development
• Increased risk of later alcohol & drug
problems
• Increased risky behaviour -> Accidents
• Hampers acquisition of healthy coping
skills
• Lose ability to “have fun” sober…..

17. Adolescents and Substance Use: The handbook
for professionals working with young people
“This highly practical manual presents an
ideal introduction to adolescent
substance use. It offers invaluable
guidance for all professionals involved
with adolescents including social
workers, health and social care
professionals, family support workers,
teachers, counsellors, mental health
teams, A&E staff, police and probation
officers. The approach these
practitioners take in dealing with the
problem has considerable influence over
outcomes”
http://www.radcliffehealth.com/shop/adolescents-and-su

18. Irish Adults & Alcohol

22. all over the shop, annihilated, Backward, Balubas,Banjoed,Battered,
bin towed, binted, bladdered, blasted, Blended, BLITZED, Blocked,
Blootered, Blotto, Bollixed, BOMBED, Bunkered, Buzzing,
Cockeyed, Cut, Drunk, Etched, f*cked, f*cked off yer face, floored,
Fluthered, Full, full as a sheugh, fullers, gee-eyed, giddy, giggly,
Full
goothered, half-cut, HAMMERED, Happy, Hockeyed, in bits, in the
horrors, Inebriated, intoxicated, Jarred, Jayrolled, Jiggered, Jolly,
Juiced, just nice, Kaned, Lamped, Langered, Langers, Lashed,
Legless, light Headed, Like a monkey without a tree, Loaded, Locked,
Loo-balled, Lorried, Manky, Mellow, merry, mouldy, Muntered,
Newted, Nicely, Obliterated, off the scullion, off my head,off me
trolley, on the way, ossified, out of it, Out of your mind, Pajamaed,
Pallatic, Paralytic, Phlanxed, Pickled , Piddled, Pished, Pissed,
pissed as a fart, Plastered, PLOWED, Plutered, Poleaxed, Polluted,
Rat-arsed, Rinsed, Rotten, rubbered, Sauced, Scuttered, Sh1t-faced,
Sideways, Sizzled, Slaughtered, SLOSHED, Smashed, Snattered,
Snookered, Sozzled, Spiflicated, Squiffy, Steamboats, Steaming,
Stewed, Stocious, Stoven, Tanked, Three sheets to the wind,
TIDDLEY, Tight , Tinkered, Tipsey, tired and emotional, TOASTED,
TRASHED, Trollied, Twatted, Twisted, Under the weather, Under
the table, Volcanoes, w*nkered, Wangoed, Wasted, wiped out,
Woozy, Wrecked, Writ, Wrote off, Yeltsined, Zonked

23. Moral language and discourse
around alcohol
“Drink Responsibly”
“Drink Moderately”
“Drink Sensibly”

24. Correlation
= -0.96
P<0.001

25. At what age is that Irish people
loose their ability to have the
‘craic’ without alcohol?

26. van Hout M.C.A. (2009) Rural Remote Health 9: 1171
• Parents underestimate their influence
• View drinking as inevitable
• Give drink in effort to exert control
• Too busy to supervise

27. Ryan et al, 2010. Systematic Review
1. Parental drinking increases risk
2. Provision of alcohol by parents to their children
increases risk
3. Presence of clear rules in the family home
reduces risk
4. Parental monitoring of their children’s activities
reduces risk
5. Warmth and affection in the relationship
between parents and children reduces risk
6. General positive communication between
parents and children reduces risk

28. Mama’s (& Daddy’s) little helper….

29. “Adult-supervised settings
for alcohol use resulted
in higher levels of
harmful alcohol
consequences”

30. Mediterranean Culture….
• Lost in translation….

31. Key Messages
• Unhealthy drinking is the norm in Ireland
• For the first time ever, an Irish government
appears willing to name and tackle this
• Our generation of adults has permitted alcohol
use to move earlier into adolesnce
• Early onset drinking is associated with mutliple
risks and NO benefits
• The more teenagers drink, the more likely they
are to experience anxiety and depressive
symptoms
• Parents are a powerful influence, but often
misunderstand what they can do to reduce risk.